Tag Archives: interview

It’s kind of become a tradition that I interview the contributors to my anthologies and share those interviews on my blog. It’s also kind of become a tradition that it takes me a very long time to get them all posted. I plan to continue the first tradition but I’m hoping to avoid the second. Just to be different.

We’re continuing the Chimeric contributor interviews with a familiar name on my blog–Beth Cato. Beth and I first met a long time ago on Livejournal, when Livejournal was still relevant, and even though we live a very long way from one another she’s one of my best friends. She’s also an incredibly talented writer who I would admire even if I didn’t like her on a personal level (which I do, obviously :-p) 🙂

What letter were you assigned?

S.

Did you struggle with the letter you were given?

A little bit, yes. When I think of chimeras, I think of the gremlins in my Clockwork Dagger series, and I really wanted a fresh take on the concept.

What kind of chimera is your story about?

A genetic modification of a little boy who assumes a “tiger” nature in his post-apocalyptic world.

What, other than the letter you were assigned, helped inspire your story?

I write a lot of stories that take place after the collapse of civilization. As I tried to think of a good setting for an ‘S” story, I gravitated to my familiar, horrible places.

Lion, goat or snake–which are you more like?

More leonine, I think. I’m a cat person all the way.

If you were going to be magically transformed into a chimera composed of three different creatures, what would you want them to be?

Gosh, probably cat, horse, and human. Which would surprise absolutely no one who knows me.

What if it wasn’t limited to creatures? What three things would you want to be composed of?

I don’t even know how to answer this one, though I am laughing at the thought of being rendered into some sort of multi-purpose Kitchen-Aid and oven chimera.

Unrealizable dreams have been called chimeras. Taking the ‘unrealizable’ part out of the equation, what is one of your fondest dreams/goals?

Um, I had the goal of being a Nebula or Hugo nominee, and now I’m a Nebula finalist–for a novella about chimeras. It’d still be awfully nice to win one of the big awards.

Can you share a short excerpt from your story?

“Be careful out there, Tiger,” Doctor said, as she did every day when she let Tiger Boy out through the narrow basement window.

“Tiger Boy,” he corrected, as he did daily.

“Yes, Tiger Boy.” Her smile was more wobbly than usual.

He knew she didn’t like letting him out by his lonesome, but he couldn’t stay pent up for days and days on end. He started to get restless and toy around with things, and that was really, really bad in a laboratory. She used to joke that she wasn’t sure if his mischief came from his Tiger or Boy nature, but she hadn’t said that in a long time.

She didn’t say too much at all, these days.

Beth Cato hails from Hanford, California, but currently writes and bakes cookies in a lair west of Phoenix, Arizona. She shares the household with a hockey-loving husband, a numbers-obsessed son, and a cat the size of a canned ham.

She’s the author of THE CLOCKWORK DAGGER (a 2015 Locus Award finalist for First Novel) and THE CLOCKWORK CROWN from Harper Voyager.

It’s kind of become a tradition that I interview the contributors to my anthologies and share those interviews on my blog. It’s also kind of become a tradition that it takes me a very long time to get them all posted. I plan to continue the first tradition but I’m hoping to avoid the second. Just to be different. We’re going to start off this week with a newcomer to the Alphabet Anthology series–Michael B. Tager. As seems to happen every time someone new joins the crew Michael was assigned one of the trickier letters in the alphabet, but I’ll let him tell you about it in his

What letter were you assigned?

Q. Because there’s no better way to inspire creativity than to be given constraints like that.

Did you struggle with the letter you were given?

Kind of? Sometimes I like to write from the title backward, so I looked up interesting words that start with Q. in a way, it’s easier (imagine looking through all the Ms for a fun word).

What was your favourite idea for the ‘word’ to use in your title that you didn’t use?

The story that appears in C is for Chimera was actually the second story I wrote. Quietus was the first word, which didn’t pan out for this anthology, unfortunately, but it’s still a dope piece (and published elsewhere).

What kind of chimera is your story about?

It’s both a creature—though not the directly mythological—and one of the other meanings: illusory.

What, other than the letter you were assigned, helped inspire your story?

Who knows where inspiration comes? While sometimes I can find a direct source, most often it’s a combination of inspirations. This is one of the latter occasions.

Lion, goat or snake–which are you more like?

That’s like asking what magical house you’d be Sorted into. We all want to think we’re the lion or the snake, but hell, I’m probably a goat (though I’m not particularly sure-footed).

If you were going to be magically transformed into a chimera composed of three different creatures, what would you want them to be? Honey badger, otter, porcupine.

What if it wasn’t limited to creatures? What three things would you want to be composed of?

Air, tacos, haughty.

Unrealizable dreams have been called chimeras. Taking the ‘unrealizable’ part out of the equation, what is one of your fondest dreams/goals?

Well, I’m making a go of it at this writer thing/publisher/editor thing. I think it’ll happen, albeit slowly. .

Can you share a short excerpt from your story?

While the master regained energy, the student chanced and look down, past her flowing amber robes, past the next fifty yards of ladder, to the jutting outline of their destination. The ancient cold metal of the ladder burned through her sandals and into her callused feet. She ignored the depths below her. She repeated the mantra of the monastery. Life is the illusion before death. We were nothing before we were something. We will be nothing again. The quaking in her gut subsided.

When the master was ready, they continued. It rained briefly, a harsh, cold rain that set their teeth to chattering. She missed her long hair that would have kept her degrees warmer. She wished for better under things than the shapeless rags under her robes. But she repeated the mantra over and over. She was not special. She was part of the world.

Michael B. Tager is the author of the fiction collection “Always Tomorrow” and “Pop Culture Poems,” a poetry chapbook (Mason Jar Press). He is currently writing a book of memoir told through essays about video games. He likes Buffy and the Baltimore Orioles. Find more of his work online at michaelbtager.com.

B is for Broken contains 26 stories (one for each letter of the alphabet) centered on the theme of brokenness. The diversity of genres and subject matter will blow you away. We’ve got science fiction, fantasy, horror and weird fiction about broken hearts, broken space ships, broken lives, broken bones–you name it. If you like speculative fiction and short stories, this collection is one you’re going to want to check out 🙂

Interview With Michael M. Jones

What Letter Were You Assigned: O

Please share a short excerpt from your story:

The Theatre of Dreams stands alone, small and unimposing against its surroundings. It’s located on the outskirts of the Gaslight District, Puxhill’s oldest and strangest community, set back a little ways from the road itself. Save for a small sign, you’d never know what the building truly was. There is no ticket booth; you cannot call ahead or pre-order here. There are no prices listed; entrance is paid with innocence and secrets, whispers and hopes. There are no hours posted; either you know when performances are, or you do not. The Theatre is not listed in any newspapers, trade magazines, or travel guides. It does not advertise. It doesn’t need to.

What is the thing you’ve most regretted breaking? Sadly, the statute of limitations hasn’t run out yet, and all involved are still alive. But it was so SHINY.

Have you ever broken something and not been saddened by it? Can you tell us about that? I don’t want to embarrass, shock, or scandalize anyone. But what happens in Vegas stays on the security cameras forever. Or so I’m told.

If you could break one law and get away with it consequence-free, what would it be? Do the laws of time and space count? Because if it’s the laws of man, I really don’t want to incriminate myself.

Do you have any rules for yourself, a code of some sort, which you’d never break? Oh, definitely.

Never ever? Well, I’ve learned never to say never. There are circumstances, sometimes.

Really? Isn’t there something which could make you break it? Are we talking bribes here? What’s your offer? Is it cash? Food? Dancing girls? Booze? I may be easy but I’m not cheap.

Did you struggle with the letter you were assigned, or did the ideas come freely? I cheated: I already had the perfect story on hand, about a young woman who was broken somewhere deep in her heart and spirit, and who yearned for a life in which she was whole. And as fortune would have it, it was easy to give it an appropriate title. “Theatre of Dreams” became “O is for Oneiroi” thanks to a hazy memory of obscure Greek mythology.

What was your favourite idea you didn’t use? There used to be a sequence where the main character—Juliet—went forth into the mundane part of the city, where she encountered another character I particularly like. That bit was cut long ago for pacing, but I still liked it.

What, aside from the anthology’s theme and your letter inspired your story? Appropriately, this one came to me in a dream, in that space between asleep and awake, when everything is hazy. The hard part was figuring out what, exactly, it was all about. This story is important to me because the Theatre of Dreams, and its owner Polly, are touchstones and waypoints in the Gaslight District, which recurs quite often in my Puxhill stories. They formed the seeds of something larger, and it’s exciting that at long last they’ll see the light of day. But unlike dreams, they won’t fade.

Michael M. Jones is a writer, book reviewer, and editor. He lives in Southwest Virginia, with too many books, just enough cats, and a wife who translates geek into mundane. His short stories have appeared in Clockwork Phoenix 3, A Chimerical World, and at Inscription Magazine. He is the editor of Scheherazade’s Facade and the forthcoming Schoolbooks & Sorcery. Visit him at www.michaelmjones.com.

B is for Broken contains 26 stories (one for each letter of the alphabet) centered on the theme of brokenness. The diversity of genres and subject matter will blow you away. We’ve got science fiction, fantasy, horror and weird fiction about broken hearts, broken space ships, broken lives, broken bones–you name it. If you like speculative fiction and short stories, this collection is one you’re going to want to check out 🙂

Interview With Sara Cleto

What Letter Were You Assigned: D

Please share a short excerpt from your story:

When the sun sets, the Snow Queen rises from her bed and slips a diaphanous robe over her glinting skin. Taffeta, brocade, and leather crowd restlessly in her closet and ease past the doors, spilling in drifts of color onto the marbled floor. The King brings her new boxes, brimming with crisp tissue and crisper clothes, bound cheerfully with a bow, nearly every day.

“For the gala,” he says, or “for dinner with the executive board.”

He smiles at her, all teeth, and suggests with exquisite politeness that she might dress and come downstairs.

She smiles, or the nearest approximation that her stiff, heavy lips can manage, and strokes her newest garment with a single fingertip.

The fabric tears cleanly under her light caress, parting with the casual brutality of a broom on a spider web.

The King sighs gently. “Darling, do remember to wear your gloves. And let your ladies help you dress.”

She looks at the complicated undergarments, plates of metal twined with industrial straps, the screws and bolts that hold the pieces together, and then at the women who never quite leave the shadow of the door. They wear sturdy gloves, the kind that gardeners who tend particularly recalcitrant rose bushes favor, and sturdy lines around their mouths.

“Tomorrow, perhaps,” she says quietly. Her lips clatter against each other, and her words are echoed by the tap of jewels striking the floor. She watches impassively as one of her ladies edges towards her. The woman collects the sparkling gems from where they lay around her feet and places them in one of the many glass caskets lining the room, arranged to catch the light. Her ruined gown is whisked away to be repaired, stitched back into a semblance of wholeness, and laid to rest, unworn, in her closet. The King inclines his head over her hand, lips scraped and lightly bleeding, and withdraws.

Sliding on her gloves, she arranges her robe around her, concealing as much of her glittering skin as possible.

She never goes downstairs.

What is the thing you’ve most regretted breaking? My umbrella, the year I lived in England. I was so surly about it that I refused to buy a new one, and I was rewarded for my sensible behavior by getting drenched at least twice a week-it rains rather a lot there.

Have you ever broken something and not been saddened by it? Can you tell us about that? I’ve been thinking and thinking about this, and, honestly, I can’t think of anything. I’m pretty much always consumed by guilt or nostalgia when I break things, even if they are ugly or useless or toxic. Even if they need to be broken.

If you could break one law and get away with it consequence-free, what would it be? Trespassing laws, especially when I’m traveling. Half the interesting buildings have no trespassing signs all over them, which vexes me to no end.

Do you have any rules for yourself, a code of some sort, which you’d never break? My strongest code is against harming animals, especially cats and dogs. I would never harm one on purpose.

Never ever? Probably not. I’ve been a vegetarian for 20 years for a reason.

Really? Isn’t there something which could make you break it? If the critter was trying to kill me or a loved one and seemed to have a good shot at succeeding, I might have to reconsider.

Did you struggle with the letter you were assigned, or did the ideas come freely? I knew exactly what I wanted to write, but actually writing it was like pulling teeth. Not because of the story- which was sitting there, very cooperatively, in my head-but because I was stretched especially thin when I was writing it.

What was your favourite idea you didn’t use? I considered dolls rather than diamonds for all of five minutes, but the moment I thought of diamonds, the story began to fall into place.

What, aside from the anthology’s theme and your letter inspired your story? Two fairy tales: Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen” and Charles Perrault’s “Diamonds and Toads.” My story is a merging of the two, given a modern spin.

Sara Cleto is a PhD student at the Ohio State University where she studies folklore, literature, disability, and the places where they intersect. Her work can be found or is forthcoming in Goblin Fruit, Cabinet des Fees: Scheherazade’s Bequest, Ideomancer, Niteblade, The Golden Key, and others. Her work has been nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize.

Over the coming weeks I’d like to share interviews that I (and Magnus) conducted with the contributors to Corvidae andScarecrow. This week we’ll talk with Megan Fennell. Megan is one of only three authors to have work in both Corvidae and Scarecrow and her Scarecrow contribution contains some of my favourite characters in fiction. Like, all fiction, not just fiction I’ve edited.

Interview with Megan Fennell

I didn’t think his expression could grow any brighter, but somehow it did, making his eyes sparkle. “Why, it’s a castle, little frauline. The most glorious castle that I’ve seen in all of my travels. The peaks of the roof tickle the belly of the clouds. You can spy them with a day’s journey yet before you. Have you never seen a castle?”

I shook my head, stung by a curiosity that overcame any embarrassment at my lack of knowledge. I was not about to admit to him that I hadn’t seen further than the edges of the great forest. My mind constructed fantastic lands in my dreams and my desire to hear of the places Rikard had seen gnawed at me as real as hunger.

“If you’re under our roof and eating our food, I think we deserve at least a story or two out of you,” I said primly, my mother’s voice issuing from my mouth. My cheeks burned again and I unpicked a knot from my mending while Rikard laughed.

“And so you shall have them, little lady of the pines,” he said. “A story… Hmm. A story about castles? Or about the sea? I’d wager my cloak you’ve never made it as far as the coast.” He studied me, toying with the feathers in his hat as they dried and giving the matter more contemplation that I thought it warranted. “Yet here you sit, perfectly unmoved in the heart of this terrible storm. Perhaps I have a more discerning audience than I thought. Perhaps I’ve found someone worthy of hearing the secrets of the Valravn.”

From ‘Kakashi & Crow’ (in Scarecrow):

We parked the car just off one of the streets that funnelled out onto the bridge and started out on foot from there. Kakashi had turned tense and silent, his sickle tucked under his jacket. The gravel crunched under our boots as we went off the path and started down the slope to get ourselves beneath the bridge.

“I can feel him,” Kakashi murmured, “He’s here.”

“Told you, didn’t I?” I said. I could feel the presence of the rogue buzzing against my nerves too, like the whine of power lines in high wind. “Are you scared?”

The shadow of the bridge fell over us and it felt suddenly colder.

“No, Johnny,” Kakashi said, “I am not. Are you?”

I shook my head, stuffing my hands into the pockets of my jacket, turning the stolen lighter over and over in my nervous fingers. “Nah.”

We trudged a little further. The hairs on the back of my neck were standing on end and goosebumps rushed down my arms. Kakashi slid the sickle out from under his jacket.

“Were you lying a little just now?” I asked.

“Perhaps,” he said.

I grinned. “Perhaps me too.”

What is it about corvids that inspired you to write about them? Since I was young, I’ve always loved the brash, clever nature of corvids. They tend to be far more ‘chatty’ than most other birds with a far less musical song, to many peoples’ annoyance. I adore that most individual species of corvids have such rich mythological backgrounds as well; folks have been fascinated by these noisy, ballsy critters long before the likes of us!

Was there one corvid characteristic you wanted to highlight more than others? Their trickster nature. In most mythology, it seems like corvid-characters tend to lie and laugh their way through life at the expense of all those around them. They have a touch of Loki about them, and I adore that.

Do you think you were successful? I hope so! The main corvid I have in play is, after all, a bard.

If you were a corvid, what would you build your nest out of? Something nice and cozy. I’m a comfort-driven creature. I’ve seen magpies swoop in to steal dog fur for their nests when somebody’s outside getting brushed – seems like a good strategy to me!

What’s your favourite ‘shiny’ thing? Hoo-boy, I adore shiny things! I have far too many sequined things in my closet and have had glittery makeup forcibly removed from my possession for my own good. The phrase ‘That might be a little too sparkly’ has yet to pass my lips!

There’s a Japanese God who is represented as a scarecrow. It is all-knowing but cannot move. If you could know any one thing, what would it be? Seriously, why didn’t they just fly the One Ring to Mordor on the eagles….?

Would it be worth learning the answer if you were forever stuck in one place afterward? Absolutely not! I’m too much of a fan of travel for that.

If you were a scarecrow, what would you look like? What would you be stuffed with? Something fireproof… mwuahaha, now I’m invincible!! Maybe with a bit of weight to it so I don’t blow away in the wind. Hard to maintain your dignity through that.

Do you think you’d make a good scarecrow? Nah… I’m not very good at sitting still, and my dance moves aren’t as good as Dorothy’s scarecrow either. I could make a damn good Wacky Waving Inflatable Tube-Man though!

What is it about scarecrows that inspired you to write about them? I was honestly more interested in the dynamic between a scarecrow and a crow, and the type of polar-opposite characters that could manage to work with each other. Johnny Crow was born first, and Kakashi followed as his natural counterpart.

Since you have work in both anthologies, which came first? The corvid or the scarecrow? I wrote my scarecrow story first… But it’s told from the perspective of a corvid character, so that question remains up for debate.

As you may know, one of Edmonton’s local Twitter personalities is Magnus E. Magpie who haunts Twitter as @YEGMagpie. I invited him to read an advance copy of Corvidae and Scarecrow and offer a short cawmentary on each story from a magpie’s point of view, which he did. When he was finished I asked if there was anything he’d like to ask the contributors. The italicized portions are mine because Magnus didn’t ask straight-forward questions on account of he’s a magpie 🙂

Mr. Yegpie: It would be cool to know where all these stories came from, I mean geographically – like I think I could tell who was from Edmonton and who was from Vancouver! (Where do you live, and did that affect your story/poem at all?) I’m writing in from Lethbridge, Alberta, where mischiefs of magpies and murders of crows rule the coolies!

Mr. Yegpie: I also would sure love to know where they got their ideas from! I caught several familiar references from existing books and mythology and fairy tales; I like seeing people riff off stuff. (What inspired your story/poem?) ‘Kakashi & Crow’ was helped along by my shameless love of buddy cop movies and a long-held interest in both Native American and Japanese folklore. Fusion platter! As for ‘The Valravn’, I stumbled across this legend while brainstorming for ideas and was instantly won over. It had that terrific Grimm’s fairy tales ‘wow, did they really just go there in a kid’s story?!’ feel.

Mr. Yegpie: I think I would like to know what people’s favourite corvid is though; and if it isn’t a magpie, WHYEVER NOT?!? (If they come back with some guff about crows using tools, PLEASE LET ME KNOW AND I WILL SEND THEM A COPY OF MY ROGERS BILL. Pffft, crows.) (What is your favourite corvid?) Don’t get your feathers all ruffled! Magpies are absolutely my favourite. And I can prove it too, because I have two of them tattooed on my back. Going with the old magpie-counting rhyme, that ensures I always have ‘two for joy’ with me at all times.
Megan Fennell is a court clerk, cat owner, and writer of strange tales, currently living and working in Lethbridge, Alberta. Although loving magpies to the point of having two of them tattooed on her, it was the Danish myth of the Valravn that held her corvid-like attention span for this anthology. Her stories can also be found in Wrestling with Gods: Tesseracts 18, Tesseracts 17, OnSpec Magazine, and the charity anthology Help: Twelve Tales of Healing.

B is for Broken contains 26 stories (one for each letter of the alphabet) centered on the theme of brokenness. The diversity of genres and subject matter will blow you away. We’ve got science fiction, fantasy, horror and weird fiction about broken hearts, broken space ships, broken lives, broken bones–you name it. If you like speculative fiction and short stories, this collection is one you’re going to want to check out 🙂

Interview With Steve Bornstein

What Letter Were You Assigned: P

Please share a short excerpt from your story:

A-One thought, for the first time, that perhaps waging total war on the humans might not have been a good idea after all.

What is the thing you’ve most regretted breaking? The last desktop PC I had. I was adjusting the hard drive partition when it crashed and I lost everything going back years. I’ve since learned the benefits of multiple backups.

If you could break one law and get away with it consequence-free, what would it be? The law of gravity. Come on, who wouldn’t love to be able to fly?

Do you have any rules for yourself, a code of some sort, which you’d never break? The Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. I find that if I’m a good person and treat people with respect, they usually reciprocate.

Never ever? No, not ever. Past a certain point, that gets flipped around to “Do unto others as they do unto you.” Sometimes karma needs a little help, and self-defense is never selfish.

Did you struggle with the letter you were assigned, or did the ideas come freely? P has lots of good words to choose from. It took me a while to narrow it down, but once I found my word the story came quickly.

What was your favourite idea you didn’t use? The original ending I had planned was a lot more action-oriented. Once I started writing, my fingers took charge and steered it in a totally different direction which worked out a lot better.

What, aside from the anthology’s theme and your letter inspired your story? A French music video, believe it or not. I leave it as an exercise for the reader to discover it.

Steve Bornstein has made his living fixing broken things, much to his chagrin. He currently works in an industry where things break all the time in ways they’re not supposed to break. He lives in Central Texas with his wife and four cats. He blogs infrequently at stevebornstein.com and can be found on most major social networks.

B is for Broken contains 26 stories (one for each letter of the alphabet) centered on the theme of brokenness. The diversity of genres and subject matter will blow you away. We’ve got science fiction, fantasy, horror and weird fiction about broken hearts, broken space ships, broken lives, broken bones–you name it. If you like speculative fiction and short stories, this collection is one you’re going to want to check out 🙂

Interview With Brittany Warman

What Letter Were You Assigned: A

Short Excerpt:

“A hundred years is a long time and the world has changed. In this new, awakened world, there are no curses, at least not the way I remember them. My prince studies the skies with mechanical devices like I had never seen before and writes detailed notes about the movements of the universe. He whispers my name to the heavens but isn’t thinking of me.”

What is the thing you’ve most regretted breaking?: I broke a necklace that belonged to my Mom when I was in third grade. A friend of mine said it wasn’t fixable, so she further broke it into tiny pieces that we then played with. My mom was devastated that we’d so completely destroyed something from her own childhood and still I feel so guilty about that.

Have you ever broken something and not been saddened by it?: Sometimes I feel relief… I tend to hang on to things until they’re completely unusable, even if they’re not as good as they once were, so when something like that truly breaks it’s finally an excuse to throw it away.

If you could break one law and get away with it consequence-free, what would it be?: Oh, probably robbing a bank or something like that? As long as it really didn’t hurt anyone!

Do you have any rules for yourself, a code of some sort, which you’d never break?: The big code that I always try to follow is simply to be kind but I know that no one is perfect, certainly not me, so I certainly do break it sometimes sadly.

Did you struggle with the letter you were assigned?: Very much actually! I had the idea right from the get go but I had a really hard time bringing it to life in the dreamy, fragmented way I wanted to. I had a LOT of false starts!

What, aside from the anthology’s theme and your letter, inspired your story?: That’s easy, “Sleeping Beauty” of course :). I find myself drawn back to that fairy tale over and over again.

Brittany Warman is a PhD candidate in English and Folklore at The Ohio State University, where she concentrates on the intersection of literature and folklore. Her creative work has been published by or is forthcoming from Mythic Delirium, Jabberwocky Magazine, Ideomancer, inkscrawl, Cabinet des Fées: Scheherezade’s Bequest, and others. Her story “Q is for Queen” appeared in A is for Apocalypse. She can be found online at BrittanyWarman.com

B is for Broken contains 26 stories (one for each letter of the alphabet) centered on the theme of brokenness. The diversity of genres and subject matter will blow you away. We’ve got science fiction, fantasy, horror and weird fiction about broken hearts, broken space ships, broken lives, broken bones–you name it. If you like speculative fiction and short stories, this collection is one you’re going to want to check out 🙂

Interview With Michael Kellar

What letter were you assigned? R

What is the thing you’ve most regretted breaking? The line between youth and middle age.

Have you ever broken something and not been saddened by it? Can you tell us about that? I once belonged to an organization which turned out to be based upon false premises, and made certain promises to that group. Once it fell apart and I discovered that the Emperor was naked, those promises became meaningless.

If you could break one law and get away with it consequence-free, what would it be? I’ve broken quite a few and gotten away with it, but telling you might negate the “consequence-free” part…

But if you really mean literally ANY law, I would say gravity…

Do you have any rules for yourself, a code of some sort, which you’d never break? Yes.

Never ever? Probably not.

Really? Isn’t there something which could make you break it? Well, we supposedly all have our breaking points, don’t we?

Did you struggle with the letter you were assigned, or did the ideas come freely? The story came first, and fortunately the letter was flexible enough that I could have called it any number of relevant titles.

What was your favourite idea you didn’t use? I was lucky enough to have my story idea pop into my mind as soon as I heard the theme. (This was a good thing, as I have absolutely no idea as to what else I might have attempted!)

What, aside from the anthology’s theme and your letter inspired your story? A rather mind-blowing horror story by Aleister Crowley called “The Testament of Magdalen Blair” which disturbed me years ago and stayed with me.

Michael Kellar is a writer, poet, and occasional online bookseller living in Myrtle Beach, SC. He has had fiction appear in Metastasis: An Anthology to Support Cancer Research, Bones II, Bones III, Side Show 2: Tales of the Big Top and the Bizarre, A is for Apocalypse, and the recently released The Grays. He has also had fiction appear on the Dark Futures Fiction website, and had poetry published in Gothic Blue Book III: The Graveyard Edition. Upcoming pieces will include stories appearing in Pure Fantasy and Sci–Fi 3 and The Temporal Element II.

Over the coming weeks I’d like to share interviews that I (and Magnus) conducted with the contributors to Corvidae andScarecrow. This week we’ll talk with Mark Rapacz whose story, Bazyli Conjures a Blackbird which Magnus described as, “A brand new Russian fairytale! Like a stolen chapter out of War and Peace!”. Having not read War and Peace I could be wrong, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Mark’s story is much more magical 🙂

Interview with Mark Rapacz

Please share a short excerpt from your story/stories:

So some of the soldiers thought he’d make himself disappear on one side of the stage and reappear on the other. Some thought he would shoot lightning straight out of his hands. Others just assumed he would fly. Still, some said they knew for certain that he would raise the dead. One dead soldier every night and for this reason we would never lose the war. Some said he could read the mind of God! Others said the Devil! Others said the generals of our enemy and for this we would never lose the war! They were always thinking of reasons why we would never lose the war. Me? I already knew we had lost. They said these things because these were the tricks they had seen before. These were what they expected to see. What they wanted to see. Most people don’t want to see what they haven’t seen before. This is what makes war so bad. You see many things you haven’t seen before and it’s best that you never see them again, but you do, you do. In here. And in here. But not here, Kuba. Not in your stomach. Your stomach stays free and hungry and only loves your Babushka’s cooking.

What is it about corvids that inspired you to write about them? Corvids have shown up in my work now and again. They show up in a lot of writer’s work, actually. Symbolism of death or something. Writers seem to like that. I do, of course. I’m not even sure where the symbolism comes from. Perhaps Norse mythology of Huginn and Muninn, but I feel like no matter one’s cultural background folks are drawn to these birds. They show up so often, too. It might be their scavenger nature and we draw the connection that with these birds comes some kind of end. I don’t know really. If I catch a gander of them on some electrical wires or in the trees, I always pay attention to them. Who doesn’t? They appear and you hear them caw and you just sort of scratch your head wondering why they decided to flock to your doorstep and you feel each individual one as they just set there cackling among themselves. They always leave you with this unsettling feeling, but once they fly away, you always wish they would come back.

Was there one corvid characteristic you wanted to highlight more than others? Definitely their furtive movement. It’s hard to capture how a bird moves in writing. It’s so odd and unpredictable. Nothing quite like it. They’re so visual, so when you do what you can with the blunt tools of letter on page, you’re always left a little unsatisfied. Probably why they return in my stories again and again. There to remind me I’m never getting them quite right.

Do you think you were successful? Eh. I think my corvid ended up monstrous because the movement of a monster is easier to capture than that of a bird … or anything real for that matter. Monsters live better on the page. Corvids live better everywhere else.

If you were a covid, what would you build your nest out of? The very last twig in existence. Then I’d take a rest.

What’s your favourite ‘shiny’ thing? Hollywood.

Mark Rapacz’s stories have appeared in a number of publications, including Plots With Guns, Revolver, Dark Corners,The Booked. Anthology, and The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2012. His novel City Kaiju was just released in 2014, while his second novel, Foreigners, is forthcoming from New Pulp Press in 2015. He and his wife currently live in the Bay Area where he continues to write stories.

B is for Broken contains 26 stories (one for each letter of the alphabet) centered on the theme of brokenness. The diversity of genres and subject matter will blow you away. We’ve got science fiction, fantasy, horror and weird fiction about broken hearts, broken space ships, broken lives, broken bones–you name it. If you like speculative fiction and short stories, this collection is one you’re going to want to check out 🙂

I met KV through Niteblade and invited her to contribute to A is for Apocalypse. I’m super stoked that she stuck around to contribute to B is for Broken as well!

Interview With KV Taylor

What letter were you assigned? Z

Please share a short excerpt from your story:

“I’m gonna cut your fucking heart out,” she promises.

I doubt this very much, but don’t see the point in telling her. I know how dangerous she is. I’ve seen my twin sister’s brains blasted all over the front of her Chevy. I was willing to let the State have her, but they lost her, and now she’s mine.

I go back upstairs and look to my closet for inspiration. Spartacus follows on his silent padded feet and asks me what I’m doing, so I tell him. (Not really, of course, I know cats don’t speak; I haven’t lost that part of my mind. Yet.) I ask him what he thinks would work better. Could I use buttons? No, that would leave gaps. Velcro would become messy.

Well use a zipper, dummy, Spartacus doesn’t say, with an indolent lick of his paw.

What is the thing you’ve most regretted breaking? Oh god, I don’t know. I had this really beautiful glass calligraphy pen that got broken in a move once. I totally regret that. There must be something worse, but I can’t think of it right now.

Have you ever broken something and not been saddened by it? Can you tell us about that? Several relationships >.>

If you could break one law and get away with it consequence-free, what would it be? I’d like to be able to travel anywhere without visas and all the paperwork. That counts.

Do you have any rules for yourself, a code of some sort, which you’d never break? Yeah, I’m really weird about what food I buy. I’m careful about cruelty-free stuff… and yes, that also includes cruelty to humans.

Never ever? Probably at some restaurants where I don’t know their ingredients, yeah.

Really? Isn’t there something which could make you break it? Personally… I mean if my family was starving, yeah! If I can’t afford stuff, I can just go without, but I wouldn’t do that to my family. Or my cats. They’d eat me in my sleep. (The cats, not the family. I hope.)

Did you struggle with the letter you were assigned, or did the ideas come freely? It actually came to me straight away, for once. No one is more surprised than me.

What was your favourite idea you didn’t use? That was, amazingly, my first thought.

What, aside from the anthology’s theme and your letter inspired your story? My basement. I always think basements are incredibly creepy. Though mine does not have a dirt floor, it’s one of those partially excavated ones, so I always wonder what’s under all that gravel and dirt and stuff behind the half-walls…

KV Taylor is an avid reader and writer of fantasy and dark fiction, even though the only degree she holds is in the history of art. (Or, possibly, because the only degree she holds is in the history of art.) In her spare time she enjoys comic books, Himalayan Buddhist art, loud music, her Epiphone, and Black Bush. Her fiction can be found at kvtaylor.com.

B is for Broken contains 26 stories (one for each letter of the alphabet) centered on the theme of brokenness. The diversity of genres and subject matter will blow you away. We’ve got science fiction, fantasy, horror and weird fiction about broken hearts, broken space ships, broken lives, broken bones–you name it. If you like speculative fiction and short stories, this collection is one you’re going to want to check out 🙂

I met L.S. when she submitted an amazeballs story to Fae and I’m super stoked to have her work in B is for Broken 🙂

Interview With L.S. Johnson

What letter were you assigned? V

Please share a short excerpt from your story:

On her knees in the dirt, Arianne can envision her mother before her, see her spattered hems and the rough clogs over her fine stockings. On her knees in the dirt, Arianne’s mind becomes formless and clear. On her knees the world is a whole thing once more, a single path as welcoming as an embrace.

Until she stands up, and the world breaks into pieces once again: the rows of brown grapevines splintering in all directions; the wind rattling the shutters on the crumbling cottage where she and her father live; the slope of the rise before the hollow, where the old house still stands, the embodiment of her mother’s betrayal.

Their tainted land.

What is the thing you’ve most regretted breaking? I have broken the hearts of some people close to me, not from malice, but simply because of my choices in life. Hindsight is 20/20, and it is hard not to regret at least the more flippant decisions.

Have you ever broken something and not been saddened by it? Can you tell us about that? I quit smoking cold turkey in 2000; two years later I buried a relative from smoking-related illness. I still miss some aspects of it—the social crutch, the way it dovetailed with my writing. But no sadness.

If you could break one law and get away with it consequence-free, what would it be? Deleting everyone’s debt (though that would probably violate several laws, alas). But to just make all those numbers go away: it would change this country.

Do you have any rules for yourself, a code of some sort, which you’d never break? No. I have many rules I try to live by, but life does a fine job of challenging even the simplest convictions.

Did you struggle with the letter you were assigned, or did the ideas come freely? I actually had two ideas. One became far more personal than I anticipated, and I needed to talk to my mother before proceeding with the story, which didn’t happen until after the deadline. So I ended up on the Plan B for V, as it were, which seemed to turn out okay—? We’ll see what readers say!

What, aside from the anthology’s theme and your letter inspired your story? There’s about a half-dozen myths and motifs that I have been circling around, well, I suppose for all of my writing life, which is longer than my adult life. One of them is part of this story. Too, I was reading Hilary Mantel’s A Place of Greater Safety at the time, so I had that period of French history in my head—both its violence and its idiosyncrasies. And it all got me thinking about how a person’s life, their entire context for being in the world, can change in a moment, whether due to something personal or national . . . or perhaps even supernatural.

L.S. Johnson lives in Northern California. Her fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Strange Horizons, Interzone, Long Hidden, Fae, Lackington’s, Strange Tales V, and other venues. Currently she is working on a fantasy trilogy set in 18th century Europe.